A private members' bill has been submitted to the Parliament Secretariat for being placed in the House, proposing enactment of a law against torture, and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in the hands of law enforcement agencies or government officials.

Twenty-five microbuses, 12 private cars and a bus carried the newly elected CBA leaders of Bangladesh Gas Field and their families to a highly sensitive area of Bakhrabad Gas Field (BGF) for a feast on Friday night.

Government authorities have ordered the law-enforcing agencies to ensure the highest level of security across the country following Friday's grenade blast by a handcuffed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operative in Gazipur police super's office.

War veterans and eminent citizens yesterday said the government should bring treason charge against former bureaucrat Shah Abdul Hannan, who has said the 1971 Liberation War was fought between India and Pakistan, and not between Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Defying Islamist militants' fresh threat, people yesterday flocked to the Shaheed Minars across the country to observe Language Martyrs' Day to pay homage to the heroes who sacrificed their lives in 1952 to uphold the dignity of mother tongue Bangla.

Speaker of Indian parliament Lok Sabha Somnath Chatterjee said India is willing to provide all necessary cooperation, including training up the parliamentarians, for making the newly elected Bangladesh parliament effective.

Several hundred activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League's Rajshahi University unit ransacked the room of Shaheed Habibur Rahman hall provost and damaged valuables, including the only portrait of Shaheed Habibur Rahman, early yesterday.

Bangla speaking people in Bangladesh and India got together on both sides of the Benapole-Petrapole border on the International Mother Language Day yesterday ignoring the line of demarcation drawn between them about 62 years back.

Tamil Tigers carried out a kamikaze-style attack in Sri Lanka's capital on Friday night, smashing a light aircraft into the main tax building, killing at least two people and wounding 50, officials said.

India can hold trial of Ajmal Amir Kasab, the sole terrorist caught alive after the 26/11 carnage in Mumbai while US is sending a seven-member FBI team to visit Pakistan next week to probe the carnage.

Editorial

The bombshell of a terrorist act by a JMB operative in the jaws of police custody, with his associates keeping him company, at a press conference in Gazipur, has definitely heightened concern about the extremists' undiminished capacity to unleash terror at the time and place of their own choosing. That they can show their hand in the unlikeliest of circumstances has been proven once again.

The tragedy which occurred on the river Kirtonkhola on Thursday is only one more instance of the callous indifference shown by people in charge to passenger safety concerning movement of river vessels. The story, as tragic as all others of its kind in the past, is simple: one vessel, in this case a cargo-carrying one, rammed into a launch that was, as usual, overloaded with passengers. There are a couple of questions that immediately arise in the aftermath of the accident. Firstly, why was an individual other than the captain of the cargo vessel allowed to operate the vessel? Secondly, despite all the rules and regulations periodically spouted out by the authorities about the number of passengers river vessels can carry, why are there no efforts at all to see such measures through?

THE global financial crisis has made all the countries think about protecting as well as reviving the growth of their respective economies. Most of them have already come up with various stimulus packages to bolster economic activities.

INSTEAD of banning opinion polls during election time, the government should ban subversive academic organisations like Kolkata's IndianStatistical Institute (ISI). Opinion polls and exit polls are way off the mark, so why bother? A ban only betrays the nervousness of a government anxious to come to power but uncertain about how this will happen.

OLD habits die hard. The Republicans have had so much success with the Karl Rovian tactics of attacking an opponent's strength, such as swift-boating John Kerry's war records, that they are attempting to do exactly the same to President Barack Obama.

Donald Peters, the chief executive of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), has said his board did attempt to do background checks on Allen Stanford before entering into a five-year deal with him along with the ECB.

India have brought rains with them, locals in Christchurch claim. But when it came to India's first practice session, the clouds made way for the sun, and India trained in ideal conditions at the picturesque Bert Sutcliffe Oval on Saturday. Equally warm was the reception that India got -- largely from Indians living in New Zealand, at a ground half an hour away from the town and not known by many in the city.

International Cricket Council (ICC) president David Morgan and chief executive Haroon Lorgat will on Monday attempt to broker an agreement in the long-running dispute between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Indian Cricket League (ICL).

Venus Williams edged ahead 10-9 in the family tussle with younger sister Serena to reach the final of the Dubai Open on Friday where she will have the opportunity to capture her second successive title in the Gulf.

Organisers of the Dubai women's tennis tournament were fined 300,000 dollars by the WTA Tour on Friday after the United Arab Emirates refused to grant a visa to Israeli player Shahar Peer, the WTA said in a statement.

AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani has insisted that his club won't increase their reported offer of three million dollars to Los Angeles Galaxy to permanently sign on-loan midfielder David Beckham.

Andy Flower has said he will consider applying for the England head coach role when it is officially advertised in the next few days. He is currently in an interim position after the sudden departure of Peter Moores in January, but despite difficulties for the team on the tour of West Indies it has given him the hunger to try for the top job.

Former Sunderland manager Roy Keane has revealed that relationship rifts with American investor Ellis Short and chairman Niall Quinn played a major role in his decision to leave the Premier League club.

The presidential candidates in the upcoming BGMEA polls promise to protect the country's apparel sector from any bad impacts stemming from the ongoing global recession, uphold the export growth of RMG products, and safeguard the interests of the exporters.

Meeting Jan Karel Bout of the Dutch Employers Cooperation Programme (DECP) last week at the Bangladesh Employers Federation was an eye opener on business in Bangladesh. DECP, a Dutch public-private partnership programme, works in 40 developing countries to bolster the business environments in those countries through removing archaic rules and regulations that stifle business and innovation.

After launching an unprecedented spending program aimed at forestalling a meltdown of the US economy, US President Barack Obama vowed Saturday to put an equal effort into tackling trillion dollar deficits facing the nation.

Global mining giant Anglo American said Friday it will cut 19,000 jobs this year after posting a 29-percent fall in 2008 net earnings -- the latest victim in a worldwide slump in demand for raw materials.

Metropolitan

The enquiry committee formed to probe Tuesday's tragic train-truck collision in Joypurhat has identified seven causes, including unprotected level crossing, absence of speed breaker and cautionary traffic signal and allowing passengers on train engine without tickets, for the accident.

Qulkhwani of Mrs Zebunnesa Hamid, 82, wife of late Khandakar Abdul Hamid, former minister and an eminent columnist, will be held tomorrow (Monday), February 23, after Maghrib prayers at House No. 10, Road No. 79. Gulshan-2 (opposite Italian Embassy).

Letters

Undoubtedly, the International Mother Language Day is one of the greatest achievements of our country. The supreme sacrifices of the valiant sons surpassed the national boundaries and are commemorated the world over. Our gallant boys gave up their lives on this day to reinstate Bangla as one of the state languages of Pakistan. The overwhelming protest on this day in 1952 against the announcement of 'Urdu Only' policy resulted in firing on the procession brought out by the students. The nation as well as the world pays homage to the stars for their heroic protest against the brutal regime. The world needed half a century to fathom the depth of significance of the day. The International Mother Language Day is celebrated not only to respect all the mother languages and to pay homage to the Language Movement Martyrs but also to build awareness to save and promote all the languages, especially the endangered languages in the world.

A write-up by Professor Dr. Aminul Islam of the Philosophy Department of Dhaka University was published on 08-02-09 in a Bangla daily. The ever smiling respectable teacher has given his opinion in favour of making "Logic" and "Ethics" compulsory at SSC and HSC levels for all students. By reading these subjects one will be able to acquire some valuable knowledge, no doubt.

Noted television director Giasuddin Selim's much hyped movie Monpura finally got released on the first day of the spring. The curiosity factor attached with this movie is natural since this movie is remarkable for quite a good number of reasons. First of all, it is the debut film by talented small screen director Selim, secondly, the familiar faces of our television drama Chanchal Chowdhury and Farhana Mili paired for the first time on the big screen through this movie,. Thirdly, gifted music director and young craze Arnob for the first time composed music for any Bangla movie. Moreover, because of the overwhelming response of the audio soundtrack of this movie, the expectations increased manifold. Now the question is has Monpura delivered what was expected of it? The answer is a resounding YES.

During the general elections held in 2001, the BNP got absolute majority with 193 seats while AL won 58 and according to Sheikh Hasina they were then given only 6 seats in the front row of parliament( apparently 1 seat for every 10 MPs which roughly makes 5 and 4/5th seats for 58). Now in the elections held in 2008, the AL won absolute majority with 230 seats whereas the BNP managed to get only 32 including 2 of the Jamaat. Therefore, following the existing formula, they are entitled to only 3 and 1/5th seats at the most 4 seats but certainly not 7.

Western cinema's bigwigs let out a collective twitter of nervous laughter when A R Rahman took the stage for his Golden Globe win. It was probably because they couldn't wrap their tongue around his name, mispronouncing it no less than three times but the humble maestro, gracious as always, acknowledged his surprise and gratitude at receiving the award by thanking the Slumdog Millionaire team.

Our heartfelt thanks to the print and electronic media for projecting our Bengali culture in the right manner with sincerity and purpose. Being abroad, we were eagerly waiting to watch the live telecast of the major cultural events at "Bakul Tola" of the Charu Kola Academy. The following poem has really touched my feeling and heart:

Chittagong had become a city of mourners instantly as the tragic report reached the town. People irrespective of age and class were rushing towards Ctg Medical College to see the survivors. Quite a few, fifteen approximately, are undergoing intensive treatment, and some more from them might meet death (God forbid).

Though this sector receives the highest budgetary allocation each year in national budget, there is a shortage of quality educational institutions in Bangladesh. A significant portion of the allocation is not properly utilized owing to massive corruption in the education sector. Dr Akbar Ali Khan has rightly said, "Corruption in education sector is the root of all kinds of corruption, and it fuels corruption in other sectors."

The Awami League's landslide electoral victory came as a surprise to many. However, the formation of the cabinet is all the more surprising. But the cabinet that has been constituted with young , energetic and promising members of the party was praised by all. More surprisingly, it includes many women lawmakers as ministers with ministries/portfolio such as home and foreignsomething unmatched in South and Southeast Asia. With a women prime minister and two important ministers at the helm, it is unprecedented.

I suppose some ethics should be maintained by the advertising houses and the corporate bodies. It came as a real shock to me when I found in the ntv that a leading actress of the small screen, Joya Ahsan, was missing for 5 days. In these days of kidnapping, killing and man slaughtering, I was almost certain that something had gone seriously wrong with her and I shared my feeling with my wife. However, later it came as a big relief when we realized that it was an "AD".

The Anti-Corruption Commission plays a vital role in eradicating corruption. During the regime of caretaker government it took actions against some political stalwarts that made us optimistic. But unfortunately, the elected government has raised some questions regarding the functions of the ACC. Even Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina raised this issue in parliament that made us a little bit pessimistic. Actually, it is true that Bangladesh is infested with all-pervasive corruption and it is ruining our country gradually. We talk about this issue very fervently, but we are not sincere to root out corruption. The last BNP led alliance government formed the ACC under the pressure of donor agencies, but they did not make it functional. Then the ACC was titular. After the political upheaval of 1/11, the military backed caretaker government took some courageous steps to make the ACC functional and result-oriented. And it had showed its performance. The AL has pledged in its election manifesto to eliminate corruption from society. But their outcry against the ACC sounds very odd and dubious. So, we all are very concerned at this.

A few days ago, the Prothom Alo, ran a story on one Majnu, a young man whose life has arrived on the brink of a precipice as a consequence of his long attachment with the drug like heroin. He has been kept in chains by his parents as he turns violent when he does not get his coveted stuff. With hollow eyes, a shrivelled body, stuck out veins--Majnu is just a classic example of the dangers of drug addiction.

The Language Movement of 1952 marks one of the most important chapters of our history. Every year on Ekushey February the whole nation salutes the Language Martyrs. Thousands throng the central Shaheed Minar to show their respect. It is a special day whose character has now received international recognition. On 17 November, 1999, the UNESCO General Conference unanimously adopted a resolution tabled by Bangladesh proclaiming Shaheed Dibosh as the International Mother Language Day. The courage of those people touched my heart and I felt as if I were just one of them. Surely, I thought, if I were there at that time, I would have joined all the people on the streets and cried out for my rights, fought for my mother tongue. On the other hand, books in the Ekushey Boimela look very smart indeed. Thousands visit the Boimela in February.

International

Asserting that his Government is committed to bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has called for the resumption of the Composite Dialogue with India.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that Washington could accept a political agreement between the Afghan government and the Taliban if the insurgents will lay down their arms and accept the government's terms.

The UN's humanitarian chief Saturday urged the two sides in Sri Lanka's civil war to avoid a "final bloody battle", expressing deep concern for the tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the combat zone.

US President Barack Obama's administration has broadened the number of radical groups targeted by the CIA inside Pakistan by attacking a militant network seeking to overthrow the Pakistani government, The New York Times reported yesterday.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday criticised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, asking him not to comment on the state's economic initiatives. The Congress responded by saying that Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was pro-corporate and had little concern for masses.

US Senator John Kerry on Saturday met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as Washington reviews its policies towards countries regarded as hostile under the former administration, SANA news agency reported.

Other than having a bit of a headache, a Kansas City woman was uninjured after a bullet fired at her ended up tangled in her hair weave. Police said the 20-year-old woman was in a convenience store parking lot late Wednesday when a man flagged her down and told her that her ex-boyfriend still loved her.

The incidence of strokes in low- and middle-income countries has doubled since 1970, surpassing for the first time the rate in rich nations, down by 40 percent over the same period, report two studies released Friday.

UNESCO Headquarters hosted celebrations on the occasion of International Mother Language Day this year, says a press release. The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, opened the celebrations. Enamul Kabir, Ambassador of Bangladesh to France and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, participated in the opening session.

Sammilita Sanskritik Jote, Sirajganj district unit, chalked out a three-day programme to mark the International Mother Language Day (yesterday). The event included discussion, procession, recitation and cultural programmes.

"Aei prithibi jemon ache temoni thik robe, Sundor a prithibi chhere ek din chaley jete hobe"-- many such spiritual songs have been written by Bijoy Sarker. His 106th birth anniversary was observed on February 19 with much festivity at his native village Dumdi under sadar upazila in Narail district.

Tomorrow (February 23) marks the 10th death anniversary of Abu Zafor. Zafor was a noted educationist, essayist and columnist of our country. His writing enriched our literary movement in the '60s and '70s -- decades regarded as a “golden age” for our litterateurs. He was actively involved in national movements; in particular his immense contribution to our Liberation War will be remembered with utmost reverence.

Local cultural organisations held several programmes marking The International Mother Language Day (yesterday) in Pabna. The day began with offering wreaths at alter of the central Shaheed Minar. Programmes included, discussion, music, dance and recitation.

Bangladesh Shishu Academy, came abuzz with activity on the occasion of the National Shishu award-2009. Sheikh Raihana Islam, a student of class eight of Jhenidah Government Girl's Secondary School was placed first in an extempore essay competition at the national level. The lucky winner went home with a gold medal. Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni handed over the award to Raihana. The function was presided over by artist Mostafa Monwar.

ATN Bangla will telecast the 19th episode of drama serial “Bhara Bari Bara Bari” tonight at 9:20 pm. Written by Nazrul Islam and directed by Humayun Faridee, the story revolves around a dispute over a flat. The landlord doesn't take bachelors as tenants since he has an unwed daughter. Mum Rahman, one of his long-term tenants, approaches the landlord with the request to lease a flat for his bachelor cousin. The landlord turns down his request. Eventually the landlord rents out the flat to Jafri and his family-- but there is a bachelor brother. When a vengeful Rahman finds out, he takes this very personally and begins to hatch plots against Jafri and his brother. As the serial progresses, many hilarious events start to unfold.

OP-ED

THE poignant story, carried by The Daily Star on February 15, of an elderly woman living a lonely life in an old people's home in the capital, despite having four children in high places, touched the hearts of scores of readers, as many of them rushed to meet her in person and offered financial help for her treatment.

THE US Congress has passed into law a $787 billion stimulus package, hoping to deliver a jolt to the moribund economy. The bill received only three votes from Republican lawmakers while the rest described it as being fiscally incontinent yet not being stimulative enough.

The naked boy now wears a shroudIn the pre-dawn darkness when the coffin bearersAre not awake with the deadAnd all the dear words are fast asleepWhen the north wind in the heart of the dewSees the image of darkness At the end of the nightThey took away the boy.